Will the NHS 10-Year Health Plan Improve My Future Health?
If you’re wondering whether the Fit for the Future: The 10-Year Health Plan for England will genuinely benefit you, you’re not alone. Whilst the Plan is aimed at improving the National Health Service, I could not help thinking that by implication, this means it is aiming to improve the health of individuals.
As a fit 71-year-old Chartered Physiotherapist with a lifelong commitment to improving health and wellbeing, I sincerely want to believe and hope that this plan will improve the nation’s health, including my own.
After decades in healthcare, I’ve seen many well-meaning plans come and go—often with great fanfare but little measurable impact. Lord Darzi himself has warned that the NHS is now in “a critical condition.” So, I approach this latest plan with healthy scepticism and cautious optimism.
In so doing, I decided to start a watch list to see over the next 10 years, if as promised (providing I live that long), how this plan transpires.
What the Plan Promises
According to the government, this new plan will offer:
- A service offering instant access to care and appointments
- A shift from diagnosing and treating illness to predicting and preventing it
- A patient-led system replacing outdated centralised bureaucracy
- Empowered frontline staff reshaping services from the ground up
- A system that blends NHS values with partnerships from technology, science, local government, and civil society to better support public health
Tracking the Promises with My Personal Audit
Drawn from the Plan, I have and compiled a list of 16 key benefits. They identify developments to which I can relate directly.
The Plan promises the following:
1 Access to a “doctor in your pocket” via the NHS App
2 A digital revolution for rapid access to services, especially for those in good health
3 A single, unified patient record
4 Instant non-urgent care advice and triage via My NHS GP
5 The ability to choose providers based on quality, feedback, or proximity (My Choices)
6 Direct test bookings and virtual consultations via My Specialist and My Consult
7 Actionable feedback loops on patient experience
8 Continuous health monitoring for early intervention
9 A “HealthStore” for approved digital tools and treatments
10 A health reward scheme to incentivise positive lifestyle changes
11 A national genomics service for personalised prevention and treatment
12 A new Patient Choice Charter starting in areas of greatest health need
13 Patient Power Payments: linking care quality to payment release
14 Transparent provider quality data accessible through the NHS App
15 Improved response times to safety incidents and complaints
16 Mainstreaming wearable technology for chronic and preventative care by 2035
This outline list has given me a tangible framework by which I will be able to assess the plan’s impact on me over time.
How I Plan to Measure the Effect of the Plan on Me
Over the next decade, I’ll be aligning these promises with my own personal health journey—tracking those which remain fulfilled and unfulfilled, delayed, or ignored. I aim to:
- Document my current health status
- Track how each of the 16 benefits I have outlined applies (or doesn’t) to my experience
- Monitor changes in the accessibility to the NHS it aims to offers
- Measure related outcomes
- Assess related levels of empowerment
- Share insights
A Shared Responsibility
Health and wellbeing have always been core concerns for me—professionally and personally. This plan claims to empower individuals to take greater ownership of their health. But this empowerment will require support, transparency, and accountability.
Everyone deserves access to the tools and care they need to live well. By actively engaging with this plan, not just as passive recipients of care, I believe we can help to shape measures of success or lack of it. More importantly, we can monitor and use outcomes based on our own health status to influence both our own and future actions of decision makers on how we might improve health.
So, will the NHS 10-Year Plan improve my future health? Time will tell, but for my part, it won’t be through lack of action. And for you, what role will you be playing?